At lunch, honours were even. At tea, Derbyshire were in control and at the close Yorkshire had a slight edge. Such were the basic statistics of a topsy turvy first day at Chesterfield today.
Derbyshire bowled with admirable control - no wides nor no balls and no byes in 56 overs. That is disciplined cricket and full credit goes to all of them for a good effort. Mark Turner can be expensive at times - and on a small ground any quick bowler can concede heavily - but he has an unerring ability to take wickets. When he does so it is generally in clusters, like today and despite the fact that I would have included the extra batsman, I am happy to concede that Karl Krikken got it right today.
Where it went wrong was in our batting, definitely an area for winter improvement, irrespective of where we play our cricket next year. At 70-1 we were cruising against far less disciplined bowling, then threw it away with a series of loose strokes to become 105-7 in jig time. Several players got themselves out by playing balls they should have left alone - we are playing four-day cricket now lads, not T20.
By general consensus, Steve Harmison got three wickets with pace but little direction and that shouldn't happen at this level. Only by dint of a late rally from the impressive Richard Johnson - very impressive with gloves and bat - and Tony Palladino did Derbyshire avoid the ignominy of a heavy first innings deficit on day one.
Of course, the harbingers of doom are out in force. "Even old Derbyshire wouldn't have done this" they cry. They would, you know, but old Derbyshire were never top of the table in the era that the critics refer to. We're fighting, and another 50 runs tomorrow morning would leave first innings pretty close. The forecast for the last two days suggests that batting might be easier and if Derbyshire can repeat their control with the ball, anything under 300 could be gettable as the wicket eases and flattens out.
Of course, to do that we need to bat much better. Only a couple of players can claim that Yorkshire got them out and that is a shame, with most doing for themselves with poor shot selection. Harmison only has three quick, if erratic overs in a spell these days and they simply needed to let him blow out, like a boxer covering up on the ropes and taking body shots ahead of an onslaught.
At 130-4 overnight we would have been quite happy with our day's work. Instead the Yorkies will be fancying their chances of catching us up at the top right now.
To be honest Peakfan I think criticism of the batting is justified today. We blew a golden opportunity to take a real grip on the game and put ourselves in a strong position. It was nobody,s fault but our own.
ReplyDeleteWe get away to a decent start,saw off the new ball and from then on it should have been plain sailing,but it wasn,t. The bowling was nothing special,indeed Harmison was absolute rubbish and the pitch was playing fine. If Durston doesn,t sleep tonight it will be because of him thinking about the worst shot I have seen all season. We blew it,pure and simple. Johnson and Palladino showed how easy batting should have been and we must hope we can somehow squeeze another 50 or so runs in the morning.
The bowling was okay and we fought back well in the afternoon. Palladino,s long lay off backfired,as many predicted it might. Turner,Groenewald and Durston all did the business and can be well satisfied with their efforts. I suggested yesterday we perhaps should have omitted Wainwright and after today I see no reason to change my mind. We would have been better served with Hughes batting at 6.
We are still just about in this game but cannot afford another batting performance like today,s. In the meantime we have to hope our bowlers can pull us out of the s***e,yet again and give us a target we have a chance of achieving.
No arguments on that the batting cost us Mark, as I wrote. Its just when other people write such comments on sites as I referred to that its silly.
ReplyDeleteWinter recruitment needs to focus on this area, beyond doubt